If you haven’t used keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop, I cannot encourage you more to start! When your doing mostly the same edits on photo after photo, keyboard shortcuts can really save you a lot of time. I would start by memorizing a couple at a time, and then building more and more. I like to write them on post-it notes to get myself used to using the shortcuts. Before too long it becomes muscle memory and you won’t even notice you are doing it. Below I have summarized a few that I use constantly and why I use them.
Color Sampler Tool (A) I use this one to start correcting skin tone. I select a mid tone skin color and then use a curves layer to correct skin. Hold down (Alt) to delete the selection.
Stamp Layer (Ctrl+ALT+Shift+E) - for Windows (Command+Option+Shift+ E) - for Mac I use this to create a new layer of all the edits I just made. This is important for nondestructive editing. This is useful if you are not sure a new edit will work, and this way you’re not destroying your original layer. Often I am correcting skin tones, and under eye corrections with a curve layer, or the patch tool, and then I like to make a new layer with all of those edits. Then I start on the new layer with cloning out distractions.
New Duplicate Layer (Ctrl+J)-Win (Command+ J)-Mac This creates a new layer of the one below it. This is useful if you use an overlay and want to add it several different times to the same photo.
Spot Healing Brush Tool (J) I use this for everything I can as far as cloning and blemish clean up. Sometimes you have to go over it several times, but it usually makes short work out of all of the clean up you have to do on skin or background distractions. Make sure to have the content aware fill on. Sometimes I have to use the Clone stamp tool (S) if something isn’t quite cloning correctly.
Brush Tool (B) This is a great one to start memorizing. B is for brush! I use this mostly on layer masks. But you will find yourself using it often if you do any kind of editing.
Gaussian Blur (Ctrl+Alt+Y)- Win (Command +Option+Y)-Mac Now this one, I believe I created this shortcut myself. I found myself using it often enough and it didn’t have a shortcut built in. You can change any short cut you want or add any you want in Photoshop! It is very customizable. You go under edit> key board shortcuts >Filter> Gaussian blur. Click on Gaussian blur, type in what you want your shortcut to be and then click add shortcut and Ok.
Bracket Key For Resizing Your Brush: [ ] I use this all of the time. Hitting the [ key will make your brush smaller and hitting the ] will make it larger. This is so much faster than going to the brush tool panel.
Ruler Tool (I) I am really working on shooting a straight image right out of camera, but most of the time it needs correcting in post production. I usually fix everything in Lightroom first, but sometimes a crooked photo will slip through, or I can’t get it quite right with the auto or guide setting in Lightroom. If you select the ruler tool in the edit tool bar (the … at the bottom of the tool bar) then you can hit the “I” shortcut to use it over and over again.
Transform (Ctrl+T)-Win (Command +T)- Mac If you bring in an overlay you will have to use this tool to move it and resize it. You will also need it for head swaps. That’s what I use it most for.
I hope you find this useful, and will start using shortcuts in Photoshop if you haven’t already! If there is an action you find yourself continuously using I highly suggest setting up your own shortcut. You can find all of the default shortcuts here. I am a PC user, so please forgive me if these are wrong for all of you Mac people!
Thanks for reading!
